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Publication, Part of

Maternity Services Monthly Statistics, Final March 2023, Provisional April 2023, experimental statistics

Official statistics, Experimental statistics

Publication Date:
29 Jun 2023
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Country, Regions, Hospital Trusts, Provider, NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Boards, Sub-Integrated Care Boards, Local Authorities, Hospital and Community Health Services, Hospital Sites
Date Range:
01 Mar 2023 to 30 Apr 2023

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Maternity Services Monthly Statistics, Final March 2023, Provisional April 2023, experimental statistics

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Antenatal booking appointments

Introduction of Provisional data

This is the first publication of Maternity Services Monthly Statistics to include provisional data, in addition to the final data reported in this publication series. This publication change is occurring as we have moved to a provisional and final processing submission model for the Maternity Services Dataset (MSDS). Therefore, this month's publication contains both the final March 2023 data and the provisional April 2023 data. This provisional data will be superseded next month by the publication of final April 2023 data, which will be accompanied by provisional May 2023 data.

As part of this change, the publication now includes three new CSV files for provisional April 2023 data in addition to the existing three CSV files for final March 2023 data. The files are available under the 'Resources' section of this webpage. The provisional data will also be included for the first time in the National Maternity Dashboard, which can be accessed from the weblink below.

However, counts of babies that were fully or partially breastfed at 6 to 8 weeks old (CQIMBreastfeeding6to8Weeks) will not be available in the provisional data files or dashboard data, as this relies upon information from the Community Services Dataset (CSDS) which is not available for publication within the required timeframe.

We have moved from processing data submissions at only one point at the end of the two-month reporting window, to processing the data submissions at two points: mid-way through and at the end of the two-month reporting window. This means that submissions made in the first month of the reporting window will now be processed as the provisional submission of the respective reporting period and will produce provisional statistics. We will continue to run final processing on submissions at the end of the second month for final national analysis and reporting purposes.

This was explained in more detail in this webinar for data submitters - for which a recording, slides, and transcript are available.

The submission window change was introduced in May 2023, for the submission and publication of April 2023 data. 

 

29 June 2023 09:30 AM

Page contents

Summary

This statistical release makes available the most recent monthly data on NHS-funded maternity services in England, using data submitted to the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS).

This is the latest report from the newest version of the data set, MSDS.v.2, which has been in place since April 2019, and the first to include provisional data - see the above change notice for more information. The new data set was a significant change which added support for key policy initiatives such as continuity of carer, as well as increased flexibility through the introduction of new clinical coding. This was a major change, so data quality and coverage has initially reduced from the levels seen in earlier publications. We expect the completeness to continue to get better over time, and are looking at ways of supporting improvements.

The data derived from SNOMED codes is being used in some measures such as those for smoking at booking and birth weight, and others will follow in later publications. SNOMED data is also included in some of the published Clinical Quality Improvement Metrics (CQIMs), where rules have been applied to ensure measure rates are calculated only where data quality is high enough. System suppliers are at different stages of developing their new solution and delivering that to trusts. In some cases, this has limited the aspects of data that could be submitted to NHS Digital.

To help Trusts understand to what extent they met the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS) Data Quality Criteria for Safety Action 2, we have produced a CNST Scorecard Dashboard showing trust performance against this criteria. This dashboard can be accessed via the link below.

These statistics are classified as experimental and should be used with caution. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. More information about experimental statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website.

Please note that the percentages presented in this report are based on rounded figures and therefore may not total to 100%.

Publication data files and suppression methodology

This publication contains three separate CSV files for the reporting months: one set for the final (March 2023) data and one set for the provisional (April 2023) data.

The contents of the three files are as follows:

  • CSV Data: Aggregate figures based on the MSDS, for a standard set of metrics including the total numbers of booking appointments, deliveries, and babies born within the reporting month. Breakdowns are provided at several organisational and regional levels including National, Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), and Provider (trust).
  • Data Quality:  Counts broken down by provider, showing the VODIM (Valid, Default, Invalid, or Missing) status of the records submitted for each data field within the MSDS. This file contains information about data quality only and should not be used to assess activity and outcomes. It reports on all the data provided at submission and will include information about records that are not included in the final analysis contained within the other two CSV files.
  • Measures:  Aggregate figures based on the MSDS, for several specific sets of metrics including but not limited to those for Clinical Quality Improvement Metrics (CQIM), Continuity of Carer (CofC), mother's body mass index (BMI), and the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle v2 (SBLCBv2). Breakdowns are provided at several organisational and regional levels including National, Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), and Provider (trust). This file only contains CQIMBreastfeeding6to8Weeks figures for final data, not provisional data, as this metric requires Community Services Dataset (CSDS) records which are not available within the required timeframe.

This publication is accompanied by a Metadata file located on the MSDS guidance hub which contains more granular detail about the contents of the above files, including information about the definitions and logic used in their construction.

In accordance with the suppression methodology guidance for this dataset, rounding has been applied to all figures as follows: counts of zero are shown as zero, counts of 1-7 are rounded to 5, and all other counts are rounded to the nearest 5, with rates (where relevant) calculated from the rounded numerator and denominator numbers. There are four exceptions to this, for rare events, where rates are calculated from unrounded numbers but are not shown where the numerator is less than 8. This applies to CQIMTears, CQIMPPH, CQIMPreterm, and CQIMApgar.

Key Facts

122 successful submissions

For March 2023 data, 122 providers successfully submitted data with 121 submitting data on births.

Two providers have advised their submitted data should be used with caution - see the Data quality statement for more detail.

59,655 bookings in March 2023

59,655 women with an antenatal booking appointment were reported in the period, of which 60% were within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Of the trusts that submitted booking data, there were 35,565 bookings in which the babies' gestational age was in the 0-70 days range.

44,085 births reported

We received data relating to 43,495 deliveries of 44,085 babies.

We have removed information about external data source counts of birth due to their lack of comparability with MSDS figures. We are investigating a more robust and appropriate replacement, and will reinstate a comparison when this work is complete.

49% of deliveries were spontaneous

49% of deliveries were spontaneous vaginal births, 10% had instrumental assistance, 18% were elective caesarean sections and 22% were emergency caesarean sections.

Administrative Sources

Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS): this is a patient-level data set that captures information about activity carried out by Maternity Services relating to a mother and baby(s), from the point of the first booking appointment until mother and baby(s) are discharged from maternity services. This is a secondary uses data set, which re-uses clinical and operational data for purposes other than direct patient care.

Last edited: 28 July 2023 11:34 am